At Grand Central Watch, a repair shop in midtown Manhattan, owner Wilson Masache carefully inspects a Rolex Explorer II that was burnt up in an apartment fire. The watch is a tragedy: more charred than the crust of a wood-fired pizza. From the blackened dial to the dysfunctional movement inside, the watch will require extensive restoration. The Explorer II is an especially interesting project for Masache, who is tasked with treating it as his own personal Ship of Theseus. The timepiece is also the star of our new watch-dedicated series, The Movement.
The Movement makes its debut on GQ’s YouTube channel today. The series walks through the restoration of a watch—in this case a charbroiled Rolex—in painstaking detail. Over the course of nearly 40 minutes, not only will you witness Masache bring the Rolex back to life, you’ll also find a comprehensive overview of what makes this Explorer special and how luxury timepieces like it function.
The first episode opens with a close-up of our protagonist: the Rolex Explorer II. The series zooms in on the microscopic parts that watchmakers like Masache have to handle and outlines all the delicate maneuvers he performs in order to keep them safe. Special tools are sourced specifically to work on Rolex watches, like a movement holder, and even the simple removal of rusted hands requires layers of protective materials before separating them from the rest of the dial.
The Movement stars a dramatically destroyed watch, but by watching the show you’ll come to understand timepieces in general. Throughout the episode, informational boxes pop up to describe what you’re looking at as the watch is disassembled and put back together. It’s cool to see a burnt watch returned to life, but even more satisfying when you realize you learned what a cannon pinion does or why a luxury Swiss timepiece sometimes needs to take a sound bath.
The show is divided into separate sections, coursing out all the steps necessary to repairing a watch. Disassembly alone is a massive undertaking when dealing with a watch so badly damaged. Watchmakers have to take careful measures not to turn a damaged watch into an irreparable one. After it’s taken apart, the watch is cleaned and polished using all sorts of specialized equipment and tools, ranging from the aforementioned high-tech sound baths to simple pencils made expressly for this purpose. Lastly, the watch is put together again using a combination of fresh pieces from Rolex and the original ones Masache was able to salvage.
In the last section, the Explorer II is put back together, and the final result is a real testament to the longevity of these finely made timepieces. Whether it was once swallowed by a cow and left in a field or burnt up in an apartment fire, these are watches built to endure practically anything. And while a full repair sometimes requires new parts, it’s a miracle that anything short of actual sorcery can save this watch from a junkyard.
If you’ve ever watched David Attenborough’s narration on the Planet Earth series and wished someone would replace the series’ darling mountain goats with a precisely made timepiece, The Movement is for you. I guarantee you’ll never find a more relaxed environment to learn about a watch's inner workings.